Another New Bike(I can quit anytime!)

First impressions, this thing does not ride at all like I expected. I guess I was sort of expecting it to be a lightweight, flexy frame. This thing is a fucking tank. It's meant to be loaded up for touring.

Also, trekking chainrings and a MTB cassette are not gravel road racing appropriate. The jumps between gears are just way too big. Really need a road casette. Going with 8 speed just exacerbates the problem. Plus those bar cons way out there on the ends of those woodchippers are a bit of a reach.

What this bike loves though is playing "Where Does That Go?"

Yes, there's a trail there. And I rode down it. Couldn't quite make it back up though. :D

It's also the best two tracking bike I've ridden yet. I could ride this stuff all day.

Riding some Ottawa Slickrock on Silver Mountain.

The summit:

The silver mine for which the mountain is named:

Took a turn onto the north country trail. Which is technically not allowed. But in all the years I've hiked it, I've never seen anybody on it. And many portions are overgrown to the point of being near impossible to follow. And I've got a whole list of rationalizations for biking where I'm not supposed to if you want to hear them....

But brushfires had recently scorched the Baraga Plains. So it wasn't long before I was humping the bike over all kinds of deadfall leaving me covered in small cuts and ash. Karma's a bitch.

And then I discovered my barcons had come loose.

Did I mention this was going to be an easy ~75 mile gravel loop just to shake down the bike? Damn Fargo wanting to go down every little two track...

At this point I was out of food and water and had to high tail it to the nearest town to restock.

8 hours in and I still had a solid 20 miles left to get home. But I still couldn't stop checking out new trails. Found this old railroad grade that spans many miles.

Stuff like this keeps the ATVs off it, so I had the trail to myself.

Finally back home. Other than the loose shifters, no issues after some serious abuse.

No idea how many miles I did, but after 10 hours- I hurt far more this morning than I did after a paved 150 miler I did a few weeks ago.